Ino Yamanaka
Ino Yamanaka is a kunoichi of Konohagakure's Yamanaka clan and a former member of Team 10 and one third of the legendary Ino-Shika-Cho trio. She is a childhood friend of Sakura Haruno, helping her develop her own identity. When they discovered they both liked Sasuke Uchiha, their friendship was brought to an end and turned into a rivalry by Sakura. However the two eventually make amends and rekindle their friendship throughout the series, but still retain a competitive attitude towards each other. In the anime, when Sakura begins to excel in healing techniques, Ino becomes her surrogate apprentice, hoping to be more useful to her friends and teammates as a capable medical ninja. In terms of combat abilities, Ino specializes in Yamanaka Clan's mind-altering techniques. To use these techniques, Ino transfers her consciousness to her opponent's mind, gaining control over their body which she can then use to attack others. She could also utilize other yamanaka techniques such as long distance telepathy and Mind Disturbance technique. In addition, she is a professional Medical Ninja and a skilled mind reader, as well as a great Sensory Ninja. In the series epilogue, Ino ended up marrying Sai and they have a son Inojin. In the Japanese anime, her Japanese voice actress is Ryoka Yuzuka, and her voice actress in the English adaptation is Colleen Villard. Background ''' '''Early Life Ino was born the only child of Inoichi Yamanaka and was a popular student during her time in the Academy. There, she met Sakura Haruno, who was teased by the other kids due to her large forehead. Ino defended Sakura from the bullies and encouraged her to embrace her forhead rather than hide it, becoming good friends with her. Over the following years, Ino's guidance and friendship helped Sakura become more confident and develop into her own person. However, when Sakura found out they had a crush on the same boy, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura approached Ino and informed her of her liking towards Sasuke. Ino took it to end their friendship, starting their dislike towards each other in the beginning of the series. Personality From a young age, Ino has been confident, bold, and outspoken girl who had a mild-temper and occasionally lashed out at others if their personal habits bothered her. At the same time, she was by nature very friendly and loyal to her allies, usually more motivated than her team-mates, and tended to take charge of them, a characteristic she would later pass on to her son, Inojin. Shikamaru, despite finding most girls "troublesome", typically offers no resistance to Ino's forceful behaviour, being unwilling to deal with her reaction if things don't happen her way. She is also prideful in her appearance and often tries to lose weight by dieting in the hopes that it will make her more attractive to boys; she even jokingly suggests that Chōji should do the same to attract girls. Ino is quite knowledgeable about different types and meanings of flowers, sometimes making analogies to them when talking. Despite her assertiveness and uppity demeanour, Ino is a compassionate and kind person at heart, having been raised to embody the meaning of the bush clover: a blunt, candid love who treasures the bonds with her friends. It is these qualities that earned Sakura Haruno's friendship, defending Sakura from bullies who teased her and helping her become confident. Their warm friendship developed into a bitter rivalry over the following years, fuelled by competition for Sasuke's affections, ninjutsu and even trading insults, with Ino as "Ino-pig" (いのぶた, Ino-buta) and Sakura as "Forehead Girl" (デコリーン, Dekorīn, English TV: Billboard Brow). After the Chūnin Exams, Ino becomes impressed by Sakura's growth and they rekindle their friendship, while maintaining their rivalry on more amiable terms. She cares greatly for her teammates as well, being relieved that they survived after the failed Sasuke Recovery Mission, promising her sensei Asuma Sarutobi to look after them after he dies, and during the Fourth Shinobi World War, encouraging them to stay strong in the face of danger. By the time of his death, Inoichi believed that Ino had truly blossomed into the bush clover of the Yamanaka Clan, and is proud of her bonds with her friends. Ino had the same infatuation on Sasuke that most other girls in their Academy class had, due to his good looks and cool personality. Even after Sasuke's defection from Konoha, Ino largely retained her feelings for him in Part II: she cried when he was declared an international criminal, and pictured him as the "love" the bush clover symbolises during the Fourth Shinobi World War. Ino meets Sai in Part II, who not only replaces Sasuke on Team 7, but also strongly resembles him in appearance. For this reason, Ino becomes immediately smitten with him, flirting with him when first introduced and blushing when Sai called her beautiful. Although her Infinite Tsukuyomi dream reveals she likes the idea of Sasuke and Sai fighting over her, Ino's affections ultimately shift toward Sai, showing a deeper desire to know more about him as she risks her life to save him in Shikamaru Hiden. Sai reciprocates Ino's feelings and the two marry years later, having a son, Inojin. Even after many years together Ino's love for Sai is as strong as ever, occasionally acting as love-struck as she did when they first met. As a mother, Ino's personality is relatively the same, but she has greater respect for her clan and its traditions, insisting they be passed down to the next generation to form a new Ino–Shika–Chō. Appearance 15DBE8EC-4DE1-4F41-BF19-46BE26C0D31C.png|Part 1 full appearance 5B4F40CB-120D-4CFF-B0BC-5555DE3E3FDF.png|Part 2 full appearance 6764A5C8-8F51-42AD-8F83-2B63A8C25BBD.png|Gaiden full appearance 125D7087-5DC9-48D2-8F95-4C6B11522FCD.png|Part 3 full appearance Ino has fair skin, light blue eyes (sometimes seen as green in the manga), and long platinum blonde hair worn in a ponytail, with bangs framing the right side of her face. Her hair is seen in different lengths: in Part I, her ponytail extends to her waist, but it is later cut and grows to shoulder-length; in Part II, the bangs grow to cover half of her face, her ponytail becomes waist-length, and she sports a red clip on the left; in the The Last: Naruto the Movie, her hair is hung loosely and extends to her calves; as an adult, her hairstyle returns to its shape in Part II, but her ponytail reaches her upper-back and sports a black clip. In Part II, Sai mentions that Ino is very beautiful. Ino regularly wears a purple outfit consisting of a high-collared blouse and matching apron skirt. In Part I, she sports this attire with bandages on her abdomen and legs, small hoop-earrings, her forehead protector worn as a belt, and for a time, white arm warmers. In Part II, Ino's outfit is slightly more revealing as she discards her forehead protector and bandages while exposing her midriff and wears mesh armour on her thighs, elbows and knees. She also replaces her hoop earrings with studs, a gift from Asuma. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Ino dons the standard Konoha infantry flak jacket and assorted clothing. In The Last: Naruto the Movie, she wears a longer skirt that reaches her ankles, high-heeled sandals and pink lipstick. As an adult, Ino wears her purple outfit again exposing her midriff with one mesh warmer on her left arm and open-toed sandals. She also dons the standard Konoha uniform while on missions. Abilities Ino is an extremely skilled and capable kunoichi, having being made to the leader of Konoha Sensory Division, as well as the Head of the Yamanaka Clan. The anime also shows that she is an interrogator at the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force. She is the strongest Sensor-type shinobi, as well as a highly professional Medical Ninja who opened a clinic alongside Sakura. Even as a genin, Ino was noted to be an exceptional kunoichi among the rookie females by Asuma, and by her father's admission, she had the potential to become the strongest prodigy of their respective clan since a young age. Ninjutsu By Fourth Shinobi World War, Ino possessed Earth, Water, Fire, Yin and Yang release chakra natures, and with Earth release chakra nature, she could erect a defensive mud wall to protect against attacks. Yamanaka Clan Techniques Ino inherits ninjutsus from her clan. Her signature technique is the Mind Body Switch Technique, a technique which allows her to possess a body and take control over their actions and abilities. She also developed a wider variation of this technique, called the Mind Clone Switch Technique, which can be used to possess and control bodies of more than one target at a time simultaneously. She is also able to use the Mind Body Transmission Technique, by which she can connect minds of several people regardless of the distance via a telepathic link in order to communicate telepathically. Ino is quite skilled with this technique, as she was able to connect the entire shinobi alliance in war without the need of a machine, and by Naruto the Last movie, her telepathic range extended over the distances of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. The anime also shows that she can perform the Mind Body Disturbance Technique, a technique which alters the opponent's mind and reflex actions as per the user's wish and force a group of enemies to attack each other or to fight for her. Ino is currently the strongest wielder of all Yamanaka Clan hijutsus, therefore being the Head and the strongest member of the Yamanaka Clan. Sensory Ninjutsu Like most of the Yamanaka Clan members, Ino is a Sensory Ninja. Even among all the Yamanaka Clan members she has a great sensory perception, able to sense the interior of chakra systems, detect the changes in chakra flow and identify any odd type of chakra. She can also lock on her target, and combine her sensory perception with her telepathy to transfer what she senses to her allies for their benefit. In later years, she became instinctively able to sense from far away distances without even first moulding her chakra. She is regarded as the strongest Sensor-type Shinobi in the village, and was ultimately made to the Leader of the Sensory Divison of the village. Mind Reading Techniques By the Era of Seventh Hokage, Ino is able to probe into people's mind for memory analysis and mind reading for interrogation, just like her father. She is able to visualise memories and extract information from it. Ino is deduced to be quite skilled with this technique, as Naruto had Ino chosen among all interrogators to read the minds of the Chūnin Gate keepers in Mitsuki Disappearance Arc, which also confirms that Ino is a member of Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force. In addition, Ino is able to remove booby-traps laid in people's memory in an attempt to avoid interrogation, by directly entering into their minds using Mind Body Switch Technique, witnessed when she saved Aoba from such a trap. Medical Ninjutsu Apart from the Yamanaka clan abilities, sensory skills, and mind reading techniques, Ino is also a professional Medical Ninja. She learned Medical Ninjutsu from the Fifth Hokage as a kid, and was noted to have mastered it by part two. She is skilled enough to heal fatal wounds, perform surgeries and tell the severity of injuries just by glancing. Ino is also a proficient poison user, able to create her own poisons using her vast knowledge on plants and herbs as a botanist, and even other strong Medical Ninjas had difficulty countering her poisons with antidotes. After the war, Ino and Sakura opened a Clinic within the Konoha Hospital to treat and assess childrens' mental health, and as an adult, Ino was shown working in Medical Department to treat the wounded. Physical Powress and Chakra Ino has an excellent taijutsu, strong enough to handle against Reincarnated Asuma, who was one of the most proficient Taijutsu user in Konoha's history. As a kid, she also fought ten minutes of non-stop Taijutsu against Sakura in the Chunin Exams without tiring out. Later in the series, she became able to defeat multiple number of opponents in the front line with her Taijutsu along with Sai. She also has a great strength and speed, which was witnessed in war when she was able to carry Choji, with enlarged arms, away from Asuma's dust Cloud Technique before it could touch him. This also led Shikamaru to compliment Ino for her awesome reaction time. She could also punch really hard like the rest of Medical Ninjas which makes her opponents go flying. Ino has a surprisingly high chakra reserve, as she could transfer her chakra to unconscious Shikamaru and Choji to keep the chakra flowing in their bodies for more than half of a day in order to keep them alive, and was able to connect an entire alliance of Shinobis with a telepathic link without passing out from chakra exhaustion in war. She also demonstrated an excellent skill of Chakra shape manipulation while still as a kid, she made chakra from her own hair into the shapes of two ropes to bind her target. Moreover she has an excellent chakra control, having being made to a medical ninja and chosen to seal the Three Tails. Intelligence Ino is very intelligent as she mainly depends on strategies and tactics in battles due to her skillset being oriented for tactical purposes rather than destructive purposes. She also graduated top from her graduating class in the academy, and easily trapped Sakura using her smart tactic in the first chunin exam. Also, she was the only one to figure out how Pain's techniques work and the fact that Pain's body must be close to or inside the village for his technique to work during Pain's Assault. She was moreover made into a Medical Ninja which requires a very high intelligence. She would later work in the Konoha Torture and Interrogation force which is a part of Konoha Intelligence Division. New Era (Plot) Academy Arc Ino goes on a trip with Sakura to a seaside cliff where Sasuke and Sakura went on their first date. Ino asks Sakura if Sasuke contacted her. Sakura says no, wondering what Sasuke is doing at the moment. Ino leaves Sakura alone in order to let her remember about her first date with Sasuke. On the day of the Five Kage Summit in Konoha Ino becomes irritated that her son Inojin didn't turn up to his training, and tells Karui of the importance of their children practising the Ino-Shika-Cho formation even in such peaceful times. Sarada Uchiha Arc When Ino and Choji were returning back to village from a mission, at the village gate, Ino spots Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Chocho Akimichi and Sarada Uchiha returning to the village at the same time as them. She muses about Chocho's shock towards her father's changed figure. While Ino happily greets Sasuke after not having seen her friend for years, Sarada believes Ino is making a move on her father and interrupts her, because she was already involved in such a situation with Karin, which amuses Sakura and confuses Ino. Versus Momoshiki Arc Ino hangs out with Sakura and Temari one day and they see Naruto's shadow clones running around to help out villagers. The three women later sat together to watch the Chunin Exams' final round, where Ino becomes exasperated when Shikadai Nara mirrors his father's actions in his youth by giving up against Boruto Uzumaki. When Momoshiki and Kinshiki Otsutsuki attack the arena, Ino helps the villagers to escape, and leaves the audience along with Hinata and Himawari Uzumaki and observes the ensuing battle. Mitsuki's Disappearance Arc EAA6393F-E236-437D-81B7-DA8E50089E30.jpeg|Ino reading the mind of the guard 86C54724-21B3-401B-9AA2-4182A3F32B23.jpeg|Ino reading the mind of the guard When two chunin guards were attacked at the village's main entrance and Mitsuki disappeared, the village went into lockdown. Ino was called with the rest of the Jonins for immediate action, and during it, she began healing the guards at the Medical Department. When Ino could heal one of the guard to a stable condition, she probed into his mind by using her Mind Reading Technique to extract his memory and further information about the attack upon Hokage's orders, only to discover that Mitsuki willingly left with attackers. A shocked Ino explains what she saw to Naruto and the rest at the Top Secret Meeting held at the Medical Department. Boruto and Sarada, who overheard the meeting were unable to believe what Ino saw, but Sarada tells Boruto that what Ino saw from her jutsu can never be wrong. Naruto Shinden: Family day Naruto and Himawari visited Ino at the Yamanaka Flowershop in search of Kurama dolls. Ino pointed out that they of course would not sell Kurama dolls and questions Naruto's logic of finding a soft toy in a flowershop. Naruto apologises her for having her bothered while at work, but as they were just about to leave, Ino gave Himawari free sunflowers as a thank you gift for helping Inojin during his art slump and for simply for finding her so cute. In the end of Family day, Ino is seen enjoying the company of her family, as Sai rests on her laps and Inojin laughs at them from a distance. 'Post Konohamaru Arc' In the anime, with Ino and her entire family off from Ninja duty for once, they decided to take a fishing trip together. Later, Sai mentions they enjoyed a lot in the fishing trip. 'Time Slip Arc' Sasuke and Boruto were sent to the past to protect Past-Naruto from Urashiki. During which, Past-Ino and her friends met Boruto, Boruto noting that Ino doesn't change much compared to her adultery. Past-Ino and her fellow genins are then mobilised by Tsunade to help Naruto and Boruto to clean up a bath house after a commotion Naruto and Jiraiya created. In the bath house, Ino ships Boruto and his future mom Hinata together after Hinata mentions that she wasn't as shy with Boruto as she normally is with strangers. Ino and her friends later walked back to their homes together having a friendly conversation. Some days later, Ino and her teammates met Naruto and Boruto on their way to an after-mission barbecue at Yakiniku Q, and invited them to join in. Although Naruto was initially against the idea of Barbecue over Ramen, Ino insists that Boruto must be tired of eating Ramen all the time and hence he needs to try something new, to which Boruto agrees, and they had a barbecue together much to Naruto's dismay. After witnessing Naruto, Boruto and Jiraiya confronting a very dangerous foe, Konohamaru and his team decided to get help for them. They ran into Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and Shino, and informed them Naruto was in danger. Ino and her friends quickly agreed to help. However when they reached the battlefield, the battle was already over. They escorted injured Naruto and the others who was involved in the battle to Konoha Hospital. While leaving the hospital, Ino is relieved that everything was fine and that they will be fully healed soon since there was no critical injuries. Before Sasuke and Boruto went back to future after defeating Urashiki, Sasuke used his Sharingan to erase the memory of Ino and the rest of the people who they came in contact with during their journey to past. 'Kawaki Arc' While Ino was working at the Yamanaka Flowers, Naruto, Sarada and Kawaki enetered the shop to buy a replacement for Himawari's broken vase. Ino greeted them, and recognized Kawaki from her earlier talk with Naruto. Naruto discreetly informs Ino that kawaki has people after him, and asks for the continued and complete support from Sensory Division, the divison which she leads. Ino tells Naruto to calm down, since she was already on the process. Naruto explained her that they were there for a vase. The shop had a range of vases, and when Kawaki chose one, Ino offered to add some free flowers to it. The sight of the stems of the flowers Ino gave triggered Kawaki, reminding him of his childhood, and caused him to drop the vase. Ino and Naruto tried to calm him down, and after he did, the three left the shop woth a new vase and some flowers. Ino tells them to drop by next time, and points out Kawaki was handsome. Meanwhile outside the village, Delta and Kashin Koji, two members of Kara discuss about the sensing barrier around Konoha maintained by the Yamanaka family, specifically Ino, and that the sensory division is still active in the time of peace. Delta mentions that if it were the case, infiltrating Konoha wouldn't be easy. However, Kashin Koji, without any hesitation entered the village after asking Delta to remain outside, and his Chakra is somehow undetectable by Ino and the Barrier Team. This confused Delta about how he was able to enter the village undetected, and furious for leaving her behind and making her wait. After sometimes, just as Ino finished helping another customer, Delta also entered the village. Ino immediately detected Delta by her chakra, and just to make sure, Ino telepathically contacted the Sensory Division, who recieved the chakra shortly afterwards and confirmed that it was an unknown chakra signature without a doubt. Ino immediately changes her telepathic link to Naruto and warned him about the intruder on the way aiming at him. Naruto gets alert, and he instructs Ino not to mobilize any of the military police and he will deal with the enemy himself. Later, being aware of the dangers associated with Kawaki and enemies after him, Ino tells her son Inojin to keep a certain distance from Kawaki for his own safety. Again while working at the flowershop, Sakura visited the shop to buy flowers and Ino deduces that Sasuke is coming home. Ino tells Sakura that she wouldn't want a husband who is almost never home eventhough how vital the mission is, and expresses her envy for Sakura's ability to remain a girl in love for so long to which Sakura responds that now she only wants Sasuke to return the village safely. Sarada also entered the Shop in search of her mother to ask about Sakura's forehead mark. When Sakura and Sarada were just about to leave the Flower Shop, Ino suddenly trembles and almost collapses upon detecting a sinister chakra appearing near Naruto, shocking Sakura and Sarada. Meanwhile Jigen teleports into Naruto's house through Kawaki's Kama, right infront of Naruto and Kawaki. Ino determines the chakra must be that of the enemies after Kawaki, so she immediately contacts Naruto with her telepathy to warn about it. Naruto again informs her that he will deal with the enemy himself like last time, but this time Ino wanted to have the a Ninja Force on standby for Naruto outside his house to which he agrees, so Ino proceeds to mobilise a Ninja Team by initiating a protocol. As such, she mobilized Shikamaru and some other Jōnins, and updated them on the disappearance of Naruto and Jigen's chakra before they arrived at the scene. Creation and Concept Ino Yamanaka was created to be the life-long rival at the same time the best friend of the main female lead of the original Naruto series, Sakura Haruno. Ino is the main protagonist from the Yamanaka Clan and she is also one of the three ninjas that make up Team 10, also known as the Sixteenth generation of the Legendary Ino-Shika-Cho Trio. Masashi Kishimoto made Ino Yamanaka's character concept such that of the Thunberg's Bushclover, a special flower which was named after a Swedish Botanist, Carl Peter Thunberg. In Japan, the Thunberg's Purple Bushclover is famous for it's beauty and the bright purple colour, and the flower can also become an invasive species, taking over space of other plants, which sounds just like Ino and her jutsu. Moreover, the plant is known to produce blooms of the flower in Falls, which happens to land just after Ino's birthday on September 23. In addition, the primary colour of Ino's costume has remained purple throughout the series and she has recieved the title of the Purple Bushclover by her father and the title of Mrs. Beauty by Sai. Further evidence, her family owns a flowershop in the village where she works part time as a botanist when she is not on ninja missions. Trivia * The name "Ino" can be short for "Inoshishi" which means "boar", hence Sakura calling her Ino-pig-chan (いのブタちゃん, Ino-buta-chan). Her family name "Yamanaka" means "among the mountains (山中)". Wild boar are heavily associated with mountains in Japan, and are even called the whales of the mountains(山鯨, yamakujira), because of the amount of meat they produce. * The name "Ino" (偉野, 偉埜) is sometimes used as a given name meaning "Great Field". * "Ino" (いの町 Ino-chō) is also a name of a town in the Agawa District, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. * Her family owns a flower shop called The Yamanaka Flowers, where she works part-time. * In the manga, it was never revealed how or why Ino became a medical-nin. Her choice to study under Tsunade was anime-exclusive. * Ino was ranked as the 29th most popular character in the seventh Naruto character popularity poll. She placed 14th in the fifth poll, 17th in the sixth poll and 23rd in the fourth poll. She finished 30th in the first poll. * According to the first Naruto fanbook, Ino had the best overall grades in the Academy. She had the highest grade in assertiveness and the second-highest grade in ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, cooperation, and class attitude, being beat by Sasuke in ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu. However, in chapter 3, Iruka states that Sasuke's grades were first among all 27 graduates. * In an interview, Kishimoto jokingly stated that Ino is anorexic. * According to the databook(s): ** Ino's hobby is Shopping. ** Ino wishes for a rematch with Sakura. ** Ino's favourite foods are cherry tomatoes and pudding, while her least favourite is Sashimi. ** Ino has completed 40 official missions in total: 23 D-rank, 9 C-rank, 6 B-rank, 2 A-rank, 0 S-rank. ** Ino's favourite phrase is "The many meanings of flowers" (花言葉の数々, Hanakotoba no kazukazu). ** Ino's favourite thing is the flower she gave Sakura when they were children. Quotes * (To Sakura), when she asks her why she gave her a ribbon) "Because… I thought it would be a waste for you to wither away as a bud. '''There's no meaning to a flower unless it blooms'. It might turn out to be… a flower more beautiful than a Cosmos.'' * (To Sakura) "Who're you calling "pig", you billboard brow?!" * (To Sakura) "You've bloomed into a beautiful flower." * (To Choji about Asuma sensei) "But it's '''because' we know him so well that we can stop him with the least risk to the army. Don't you remember what those earrings are supposed to represent Chōji?" * (To Shikamaru) "''It's not a matter of can or can't, I'm doing it!" * (To Sakura) "Who knows speaks the least" Category:Characters Category:Female Category:Konoha 11